Opera Parallèle, a Bay Area opera company, founded by UCSC Music Professor Emerita, Nicole Paiement, who is its musical director and conductor, has commissioned an opera based on the life of Georgia O’Keeffe, in her early career and before she was the icon we know today. This represents a milestone for women in the arts: a commissioned work by a woman composer, about a woman artist, with a woman conductor.

This new opera will be rehearsed in workshops while it is still in the process of creation, May 29, 30 and 31 at Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz and on campus. Rehearsals will be free and open to the public.

Bettina Aptheker, distinguished professor of feminist studies at UCSC and chair holder of the Peggy and Jack Baskin Foundation Presidential Chair for Feminist Studies, is collaborating with Nicole Paiement. Bettina and panelists will talk about the opera, and more generally about women in the arts.

Come and enjoy. Light refreshments will be served.

Register here: http://alumniweekend.ucsc.edu